How Are Your Elves/ Dwarves/ Orcs Different?

[Jester David]

What unique and weird things have you done with the default options from the Player's Handbook?


In your homebrew fantasy world do your dwarves have beards, Scottish accents, and a predilection for mining? Or are they ferocious sea-raiders wearing bear hides? re your dwarves honorbound and divided into familial clans, or do they have a caste system based around their occupation? Do they hate all things magical, relying on martial weapons and or even firearms? Or do they employ arcane runes and forge magitek wonders? A

What have you done either physically or culturally to make the standard fantasy people different and unique? What tropes have you kept and which have you subverted?

 

[aco175]

I tended to keep all of mine rather standard. PCs can be exotic or stranger, but the base races are more standard from past editions. The players expect this at my table and unless there is a reason to change, it stays within what would be considered normal. This allows the players to know when something is different, say if they encountered a group of seafaring dwarves. The players would know that this is an exception rather then the norm.

Even when I was more into worldbuilding I never went too far outside the lines.

 

[Dausuul]

I once ran a campaign in which the world was locked in an arcane Cold War between the evil elvish empire, full of intrigue and dark magic, and the gnomish republic with their Iron Legion of golems. The orcs were a race of paladins, the dwarves were nomads, the halflings had a continent-spanning crime network, and the humans were a fading race out of legend.

That was the campaign where one of the players began pretending to receive magical messages from a wizard named Kraelgor Draco. The player would pass me a note saying he wanted to talk in private, we'd go in the other room, and discuss some random thing for a bit; then he'd come back and announce that Kraelgor Draco had sent him another vision. He got the party going on quests and NPCs all over the world dancing to the tune of this completely imaginary archmage. For a while he was pretty much dictating the course of the campaign.

In all the games I've run, I think that one might take the cake for the best stories.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

What a fun subject!
I'm Dming most of the time in FR, but I like to think that I give an interesting twist to the usual tropes. Since I DM for new players, I also frequently enforce old-school lore which seem ''new'' to them even if its ''classic'' or ''cliché'' for my own point of view.

Human: most cities are human-made. I put a heavy emphasis on the fact that this is the Age of Men, so there's no large population of other races.

Elves: No aloof or carefree elves for me. Elves are a people belonging to a lost age, a people who've seen their people disappear slowly. I ask my players to keep in mind that their character has probably seen many friends die of old age, nations disappear, generations rising then falling by the time their characters are ready to adventure; its something that would weight on many character. Most of them have retreated back to the feywild or a few city hidden from manking (Evereska). Other still occupy large forest to keep the war against the Drows alive, living in small guerilla-warfaring, martially-driven clans. No tree huggers in them.

Dwarf: If you try a Scottish accent, you're banned from the table; we play in French, so you can imagine the results if someone tries I inspire myself heavily from the Dragon Age depiction of the dwarves: rigid caste system, importance of the appearance of honor over honor itself. To me, the main theme of the dwarves isnt forge, metal or stones: its secrecy. I put emphasis on the fact that dwarves have secret ''true names'', they know the magic of hidden doors and passageways etc

Gnomes, Dragonborn, Tiefling, Half-orc, Half-elf are very very rare; if a player plays one of them, they must understand that they will be treated as an anomaly in most villages and towns.

 

[iserith]

The dwarves in my setting prefer wine spritzers to ale.

They have cultivated lime trees that grow by the light of their forges and the water of their slack tubs is made effervescent with their great bellows. Mix with white wine made secured by Underdark traders and serve chilled.

They all still speak with a Scottish accent though.

 

[Shiroiken]

Elves are only 5' tall. Dwarves are Nordic, not Scottish. Half-orcs are very ugly humans (because they're usually attacked if revealed to be half-orcs.

Some of you may recognize these weird tropes from AD&D...

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I have inflicted a culture loosely based on the Aztecs on the orcs, who think they can prevent the rise of god monsters who will destroy the world by periodically sacrificing humanoids to them (the orcs are correct). They also believe that the god monsters eat the souls of those that have been sacrificed to them, and they think that by sacrificing weaker humanoids (i.e., not orcs), that it will weaken the god monsters, so that if they do awaken, the orcs will be able to beat them (the Magic 8 Ball gives an Unclear about the correctness of this belief). This makes orcs bad neighbors (as does their tendency to practice for the inevitable apocalypse by fighting their neighbors).

 

[jgsugden]

My Prime Material Plane is infinite. The PHB description of the races is what you find in examples of those races that are close to where the adventuring parties adventure. However, the farther you go, the greater the difference you'll find. There are certain elements that tend to remain true most of the time: Dwarves like the underground and are a bit xenophobic, Elves live in harmony with the forces of nature and magic, Halflings are frustrating... but there is a lot of variance in them in other ways.

 

[Nevvur]

Elves, dwarves, and humans all evolved naturally on my world, rather than being the creations of gods.

Elves came from feline pack hunters, and have a genetic fear of insects owing to their near extermination by a species of insectoid super predators in their original homeland. They migrated across the north pole to escape extinction about 200,000 years ago. The bugs couldn't follow and survive the cold. They're obligate carnivores and highly isolationist. Exile is a lot more common a reason than a sense of adventure when it comes to encountering elves outside their new homeland.

Dwarves came from a species of jungle dwelling badgers. It's a longer story than I care to share here, but most of them undergo a process of spiritual lobotimization that inhibits their dreams, emotions, and ability to use magic. Leaves them highly logical and practical. Basically Star Trek Vulcans with short statures and beards. The ones who don't undergo the process are pretty similar to Tolkien dwarves, though.

Most of the monstrous humanoids sprang into existence very recently. They're the result of a magical catastrophe which transformed a large population of humans, cursing them with hideous shapes and warped minds. I've run a three campaigns at different points in time in this setting, the first two a couple decades after the event. In my current campaign, they've only been around for about 1 year, and very little is known about them beyond their insatiably violent natures.

 

[ccs]

For the most part I haven't deviated much from the expected tropes & setting specifics. Afterall, that's what most of my players have wanted to play.... I like it & it works just fine, so no need to do extra work.

Currently:
*In the PF game I'm running it's just PF standard.
The group likes the Golarion setting just fine & as we rotate DMing campaigns (APs, HB, or mixed) it keeps things consistent.

*In the 5e (ToA) game I'm running down at the shop I've got 4/5 players who are completely new to D&D within the last 9 months to year. So I've intentionally let the PHB etc fluff stand - until/unless one of those players introduces further detail.

I haven't even bothered to detail/reveal many world details beyond Chult.
My veteran player hears Chult, various place names, various NPC names, items, etc & therefore assumes TSR/WoTC FR....
He's wrong, has been corrected ("No Joe, this is CCSland. Wich may/may not have bits inspired/stolen from things you're familiar with.... Including, but definitely not limited to, the FR. ) , & has slowly begun to add bits of "World Lore".
The new players, not having a head full of FR crap are much better at supplying random info. So far all they've added race-wise is that:
1) Dragonborn & Tieflings are inert as far as cutting them up & selling the pieces as exotic components for magical research. No, you cannot harvest the "breath weapon gland" of the dragonborn. Well, you could, but past experiments have proven it worthless outside a live DB....
2) Dwarves come from Istanbul & have a penchant for technology. Examples include the smelting equipment found in the fire newt mine & the crashed airship the party has heard rumors of. Ok.
I'm not at all sure yet how the player envisions Istanbul. Country? City-state? ??
3) Elves used to travel the world via magical gates. Think Stargate style. This was revealed when the party was formed & tasked with their initial mission to Chult. Chult is a long ways away from The Great Kingdom (even though there is no map of CCSland). I was planning to teleportation circle them there anyway as getting to Chult is assumed.... But having a permanent cloaked Elvish Gate, that only functions for members of the Elvish nobility <DM addition: To qualify a character must have the Noble background>, located a day off-shore from the Kingdom is cool.